Painful Souls
by StubburnWolf
Summary: A lone survivor runs into our favorite redneck, from there she becomes part of the group and uncovers the real Daryl underneath his tough exterior. Read on, summary sucks.


**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from The Walking Dead. Lexi is my character and so is her back story. Read, and enjoy! :D**

The woods were quiet, free of biters. Even so, that didn't mean I stopped watching out for them. Today I was out hunting squirrels with my bow. So far I had two hanging from a string on my hip and had another one in my sights. He was clinging to a tree about ten yards out, tail twitching, looking away from me. I raised my bow, lining up the sights, let out a slow breath and let loose the arrow. It flew and hit its mark. I smiled but, had to take a double take. There were two arrows buried in the little body. Cautiously I scanned in the direction the other arrow had come from but saw no one. After a tense moment of neither party venturing forth, I took a chance and went to retrieve my arrow.

As I approached the tree I heard soft steps coming in my direction. "Git away from my squirrel and put your hands up." I froze and calmly raised my hands, still facing the tree.

"I saw it first." I stated flatly and dared a glance over my shoulder. There was a man in a sleeveless shirt, holding a crossbow up to my head. He didn't look angry, just stern. I looked down and saw a nice bunch of squirrels hanging over his shoulder. "Besides, you have more than I do. I need it more." I looked at him earnestly. He squinted at me.

"You by yourself?" He asked. I nodded, looking him in the eyes. He lowered his bow. "Well, shit." He looked like he was considering something. I turned to face him, bringing my hands to my sides. "I've got a group up the mountain a little ways from here." I stared at him, not sure if it was an invitation. Actually it was more of a statement. He turned around and started walking away. I watched him go for a few seconds till he turned around. "You coming?" I caught up to him and flowed at his heels.

For a guy he was surprisingly light on his feet, barely making a sound as he went. I stared at his feet for awhile fascinated. A slight rustling caught my attention. Looking up I saw another squirrel climbing down a tree to our left. Swiftly I drew my bow, notched an arrow, and shot. Without a word I diverge from the path to retrieve the squirrel and arrow. I hung it from my belt and looked up to see him waiting patiently for me where I left him. Quickly, and quietly I made my way back to him. He turned back and continued heading in the direction we had been going. We walked in silence for a few minutes before he broke the silence. "My name's Daryl." I went back to watching his feet.

"My name's Lexi." I said meekly. He grunted in acknowledgement. That was the last exchange we had before we came upon the camp. There were tin cans strung up all along the perimeter of the site. Early alarm system, smart, I thought.

I was taken aback by the number of people in his group, at least a dozen of them. A woman shouted out, "Hey, Daryl's back, and he brought a friend." Daryl looked annoyed.

"Her name's Lexi." Daryl informed them, and then left me to awkwardly be examined by the entire group. A lady with long dark hair approached me first, smiling.

"Hi, I'm Laurie; let me introduce you to our group.' I walked with her and gave a small nod to everyone as she named them. I sat down by a young boy, Carl, pulled out a pack of cards, and started playing solitaire. Carl watched me.

"So how did you keep away from the walkers?" I answered, not looking up from my game.

"I slept in trees." He cocked his head to the side.

"Are you good at it? Climbing trees?"

"I can climb any tree." He stood up and looked at the tree line.

"How about that one?" He pointed out a tall, tree with high branches. I stood up, pulled my knife from my pocket and walked over the size up the tree. With a quick sprint I ran up the tree, stabbing my knife in to help pull me up. I swung my legs up and hooked them around a low branch, then made my way further up, using broad branches as steps. When the branches above could no longer support me I stopped and stood on my current branch, looking down at the group. I heard a few whistles and claps. Just as quickly I shimmied down the tree and walked back to me seat. I saw Daryl out of the corner of my, watching me intently.

The solitaire didn't hold my attention long. Instead I walked over to Daryl. He was in the middle of skinning a squirrel and looked up at me.

"What do ya want?" I searched in my pocket for my knife and pulled it out.

"To help skin the bounty." He scoffed and resumed skinning his catch. Together we worked silently until they done. He took the meat to prep it for cooking. Behind us I heard one of the men, Shane I think; say something about a new member to a person whose voice I didn't recognize. Heavy steps came closer and stopped right behind me. I turned and looked up to see a rough man leering down at me. He whistled and smirked.

"Well, well, my brother found himself a pretty lil thing." He laughed. "How are ya, girly?"

"Twenty." I said evenly. Daryl came back from dealing with the squirrels and looked to his brother.

"Nice going lil brother," He slapped me on the back. "You lucky son of a bitch." I Looked to Daryl for help.

"Knock it off Merle." Merle laughed again.

"Oh, come on. You know I'm just fooling." I wiped the blade of my knife on the grass and put it away, safely in my pocket. "You're not much of a talker are ya?" I shook my head. "Haha, you've got the perfect woman here, Daryl, hot, and don't talk." I glared straight ahead, face flushed. "Now, if she's good in the sack you'll be set. The heat rose up in my cheeks, burning.

"Merle!" Daryl scolded. I refused to look at Merle or Daryl, too embarrassed. Merle turned and left, chuckling to himself. I remained sitting, not talking to anyone till it started to get dark. Daryl made up a small fire, big enough for light, but small enough to not to draw attention. It was warm on my face, and the flames caught me in a trance.

I unzipped one of the pockets on my pants and pulled out a small piece of wood and my knife. In the light of the fire I started to whittle away at the wood. Daryl watched me for a few minutes before asking. "Do you have any more of those?" I dug around in my pockets and pulled out two small wooden animals, a rabbit and a squirrel, and handed them to him. He inspected them closely, running his fingers over the smooth wood. He paid particular attention to the squirrel. I smiled.

You can keep that one if you want." The edge of his lip curled up, just a little and he put the sculpture in his pocket, handing the rabbit back to me.

"Do you do these things a lot?" I went back to the one I was working on.

"Yeah, it's my hobby." He watched me whittle.

"How did you get so good at climbing trees?" I paused in my whittling, a pain in my chest forming. It must have shown on my face because Daryl looked right at me.

I swallowed a lump in my throat and said in a flat voice. "My father would beat me growing. My mother would let him do it, wasn't like she could stop him if she tried anyway." I sighed. "If he sounded angry when he came home I would go hide in the woods by my house. I had a plan to just run away and live in the woods, so I got really good at hunting and survival." A log popped in the fire. "But, when my sister was born I knew that was no longer an option. I had to stay to protect her; Lord knew no one else would." I looked up at the man sitting across from me. I recognized the look in his eyes. "You were hurt too weren't you?" I asked solemnly. He steeled up.

"It's late, you should go sleep somewhere." He got up and left me alone by the fire. I stared at the space where he had been for a few seconds then stood up. AS I walked back towards the group I was stopped by an older man, Dale.

"You can sleep in the RV. It's not the most comfortable, but it's warm." I nodded and opened the door to the RV. It was tight inside, but it was just fine. I set my bow down on the table and curled up on the bench, resting my head against the wall. It didn't take long before I was out.

**OK, so that was my first TWD fic. Rate and review to let me know what I'm doing good, and what to improve on. **

**Reviews keep the walkers away, so the more I get the more I can write! ;)**


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